# Nonthermal ion acceleration by the kink instability in nonrelativistic jets

## TL;DR

This study uses 3D kinetic simulations to show how kink instability in nonrelativistic plasma jets accelerates ions to nonthermal energies, with implications for space, astrophysics, and laboratory experiments.

## Contribution

It demonstrates the efficient ion acceleration mechanism driven by kink instability in nonrelativistic jets and explores the effects of Coulomb collisions on this process.

## Key findings

- Kink instability converts magnetic energy into energetic ions.
- Nonthermal ion spectra with power-law tails are produced.
- Collisional effects can suppress nonthermal acceleration.

## Abstract

We investigate the self-consistent particle acceleration physics associated with the development of the kink instability (KI) in nonrelativistic, electron-ion plasma jets. Using 3D fully kinetic particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations, we show that the KI efficiently converts the initial toroidal magnetic field energy into energetic ions. The accelerated ions form a nonthermal power-law tail in the energy spectrum, containing $\simeq10\%$ of the initial magnetic field energy, and with the maximum ion energy extending to the confinement energy of the jet. We find that the ions are efficiently accelerated by the concerted action of the motional electric field and highly tangled magnetic field that develop in the nonlinear phase of the KI: fast curvature drift motions of ions across magnetic field lines enable their acceleration along the electric field. We further investigate the role of Coulomb collisions on the ion acceleration efficiency, and identify the collisional threshold above which nonthermal ion acceleration is suppressed. Our results reveal how energetic ions may result from unstable nonrelativistic plasma jets in space and astrophysics, and provide constraints on the plasma conditions required to reproduce this acceleration mechanism in laboratory experiments.